We really did nothing else yesterday. Just chilled. Today we have a brief period of easterlies forecast before shifting back more northerly. So we’re off around 7am soon after dawn. Next stop Point-a-Pitre. Probably.

This morning we swam ashore and climbed up to the top of the hill to see the ruins of yet another old fort and an old attempt to build a resort on the island. We then went snorkeling. Apart from the regular denizens I managed to spot a green moray. Helen spotted the most amazing fish. It was grubbing along the bottom and coloured similar to the sand. It was about 9 inches to a foot long. It had two pairs of side fins. With the forward pair it was rummaging through the sand – almost as if they were arms. The second, rear pair, were as almost as big as the fish itself. When spread out they looked like wings with blue edges. Maybe it was a flying fish but I didn’t know they were bottom dwellers. Anyone who knows what this was, please let us know. Unfortunately we didn’t have the camera along with us to take pics underwater but we have some of the walk.

After the rain stopped this morning things went almost to plan. We walked/climbed up to Fort Napoleon and it was open. It quite a solid castle for such a small island. Much of it had turned into gardens and there was quite an array of cactus and other tropical plants to view. In the museum section it was mostly in French. There were some very interesting ship models and a section on the sea battle of The Saintes in which, I am guessing, the French beat the British.

While we were in the museum it poured down with rain again and remained overcast when we left. We decided to continue onto the beach. I certainly felt that having lugged our lunch and snorkel gear up the hill we should at least go the distance to the beach.

At the beach we ate our lunch but decided against getting into the water as it was still overcast and quite windy. So we headed back to the boat, handled a last few emails and calls then moved the boat over to Ilet a Cabrit. The anchorage is wonderful. It is sheltered against the prevailing winds and the water calm. Now that we’re used to anchoring in over 40 feet we felt quite comfortable dropping the hook at the edge of the group of boats already gathered here.

The afternoon was mainly sleeping and reading until 3pm when we took the dinghy to the reef at the west end. Helen snorkeled and I took a tank down and dove. The area was full of fish and we both enjoyed ourselves. This time I took my old camera and it’s underwater housing. I will upload pics when I can.

I’m a bit peed off with the dive shop in Falmouth Harbour. We paid to have our four tanks inspected and filled with air. Two of the three we’ve used had lost a third of their air. It appears that the inspection was poorly performed as these two tanks are leaking air where the first stage screws into the tank.

Looking forward we’re looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow before heading for Point-a-Pitre on Sunday. Wind forecasts are marginal for the sail. But we may just go anyway and take our time. We’ll see as we get closer.

After a light breakfast of fruit we moved Dignity back to Le Bourg – roughly where we were yesterday but further out. We ended up anchoring in 50 feet of water which is much deeper than we’ve anchored before. We couldn’t make ourselves happy with the position as we kept coming up close to another boat so we shifted over to the other side of the bay where we anchored and now remain.

First half of the day was light as we were recovering from the previous nights escapades. I did manage a trip to the bakery for fresh bread for lunch.

This afternoon we took a walk over to Marigot Bay and up onto the point beyond called Morne Morel. We were presented with some beautiful sights including looking down into Plage de Pompiere which we eventually walked down to. It’s a beautiful area and we want to spend a bit more time there.

So this defines the next few days. Tomorrow it’s up early to finally get some decent fresh croissants. If the croissants are as good as the bread they’ll be heavenly. After breakfast we’ll prepare lunch and pack our snorkels and first stop will be back up the hill to Fort Napoleon. After that we’ll head to Plage de Pompierre where we’ll go rock hopping, snorkeling and have our lunch. Back on Dignity we’ll move over to Ilet a Cabrit and stay a couple of nights to unwind ready for our trip to Point-a-Pitre on Sunday.